LOTR Castmember Quotes
Sean Astin
(Sam) |
||
Speaker |
Topic |
Quote |
| Andy BBC Newsround, 3/21/03 |
Acting | They're so suited to the parts. I mean I can't think of anyone else to play particularly Frodo or Sam - they were just so in character that it didn't make any difference at all. So they worked really hard on their accents and I think their accents are really good, so I didn't think about that. |
| Andy BBC Newsround, 3/21/03 |
Sean and Elijah | They'd been filming for about three months before I arrived in New Zealand so the four hobbits were very closely bonded as friends but particularly Sean Astin and Elijah Wood, Sam and Frodo, they were particularly bonded. And also because they were acting obviously in costumes and make up and everything and they were having to act with this very strange man dressed in a white suit who appeared one day on set and started to try and break up their relationship, their on screen relationship. It's very odd how your off screen life kind of reflects your on screen life and I did tend to spend a lot of time isolated and on my own as Gollum and I did go off and do a lot of climbing and walking on my own but really that was part of the character and it nearly always happens when you play a role. And so the relationship between Sean and Elijah came from the relationship with Sam and Frodo. So I did feel like I was gradually encroaching on their relationship yeah. |
| Barry Osborne | Characterization | Sean Astin is a wonderful choice for Sam because he brings a real joviality to the role, as well as an empathy for Sam's struggles. I think it's also a real bonus that he and Elijah Wood are such good friends. That closeness really shows in the relationship that develops between their characters. |
| Billy USA Today, 12/14/01 |
Past Work | I loved The Goonies, and The Ice Storm for Elijah. One time coming back to New Zealand from England, I was in a hotel and jet-lagged and forgot I'd asked Sean to get me a copy of Rudy because I never saw it. And I was in tears at 4 in the morning! I called him Rudy for months after that. |
| Crewmember | Cirith Ungol | Later, we sit and watch the filming, in the top room of the tower of Cirith Ungol. The scene is trimmed to its essentials. The dialog is not always Tolkien's, but I have to return to the book to be sure, the spirit is so close. I get to hear one of my favorite lines: 'You can't go walking in the Black Land in naught but your skin, Mr. Frodo.' The essence of Sam. Peter gives the dialog a subtext. Sam is thinking, 'I'm going to destroy that thing that's causing you so much pain - by myself if that's what's needed'. They spend all day on this bit, so critical to the emotional arc of the story. In the end, Sean Astin as Sam delivers the line with weariness, grief, determination, courage, and love. I leave with tears in my eyes. |
| Elijah | Brother | The journey in making this film kind of mirrors the journey of Frodo and Sam. It's definitely one of the closest relationships I've had. I feel like I've gained a brother in Sean. |
| Elijah | Togetherness | Every day we get up, come into work, put our hobbit-feet on and off we go together, side by side, every step of the way. |
| Richard Donner | Directing | I think he's going to be the director of the crowd. My problem with Sean - and don't get me wrong, I love the kid - is that he's always saying to me, 'Why don't you do it this way?' And half a dozen times he came up with ideas I've never thought of and they're smashing. |
| Sean A | Emotions | I wanted all the emotions, all the interplay, to be real, honest and grounded in a sense of authenticity. When people refer to LOTR as a fantasy, it almost makes me wince because, to me, it was real. I approached the portrayal and the interpretation of the character as a very real, human-like specimen. |
| Sean A USA Today, 12/14/02 |
Favorite Character | The cave troll, who is unleashed by the nasty Orcs and attacks the fellowship. "He's a big, lumbering, brutal beast hellbent on killing all of us. But there is a kind of pathos to him." |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Hobbits | Sam is, as are all Hobbits, very emotionally available
- they're constantly referred to as bursting into tears, and they shudder
in fear when there's a huge nine-foot-tall thing coming at them, as anybody
would. Yet that doesn't undermine their heroism. They still rise to the
challenge of the moment - battling against a cave troll, or enduring near-starvation
and continuing to move forward because they have to. I was very careful in learning how to walk like a Hobbit, that it didn't get goofy. Hobbits aren't goofy - Hobbits are real. They're an earth-loving people. Tolkien was raging against the industrial revolution. The Hobbits are a species of the earth, and there's something magical that should be celebrated about that. To me, when you read the books you forget about the Hobbits' diminutive size. Halfway through the first book, I forgot that Frodo and Sam are little. Because as the reader, you're identifying with them. The audience will hopefully identify with us, because we're human-like. In fact, you could say Hobbits are the essence of all that's beautiful and poetic about the human form - as the Orcs are all that is ugly and bestial about the human form. The Hobbits are diminutive (compared) to the humans they stand next to, or the Elves that are fighting on their behalf, but once that gets stripped away, and you really live as a hobbit - as I have - you forget about being diminutive. The Hobbits have a kind of heroism, strength and size that's exactly the opposite of their physical description. |
| Sean A | Real Life | The character is so much a part of me - it's difficult right now thinking about life outside Middle Earth. |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Sam | Well, a lot of people ask me, "Was is hard to
play someone who's quiet and loyal, who's patient and perseveres, and who
is decent and good?" The genuine, honest answer in my heart is no,
it's not hard, because I feel like that's who I am. The qualities in Sam
that I so admire are qualities that I think everybody has in them, and they
are certainly the parts of myself that I'd want to focus on. I also knew from the beginning that Elijah Wood was playing Frodo, so I never looked at the stories and wondered, "Who could I be? Could I be Aragorn, or Frodo or Legolas?" That was never a question. They saw me as Sam, and that's how I was introduced to this world, so it's almost like that's the only thing I ever could be. I was a little nervous when I saw the Ralph Bakshi cartoon, and I saw how the Hobbits were portrayed as these bumbling, fumbling little things. I wanted to make sure that we didn't sacrifice the credibility of the heroism by making it too roly-poly and comedic, and I think we struck that balance. I didn't want Sam to be too fat. I think there's a very valid reading of the character that is a stocky, portly yeoman character who isn't just a roly-poly fat boy. |
| Sean A | Sam | As I was reading the books, I was reading them with an eye towards Sam, but he's just got such a warm, honest, pure good-hearted essence. And that's his position in the film and in the book. It's to be a kind of barometer against which all of the adventure and evil is measured. Sam has an unfaltering moral compass. He always knows who he is. As all the different characters, with all their different complexities, change and evolve and grow or fail, Sam just is....good. He has a level of experience at the end of the trilogy that he didn't have at the beginning that informs his goodness. It makes his goodness that much more admirable. It's easy to be naive and innocent and good but it's another thing to have been embattled and, despite all of the trials and tribulations of an epic adventure, to remain good of heart. |
| Sean A | Sam | Sam is the personification--I should say the Hobbitification--of loyalty and goodness. |
| Sean A | Sam | I wanted to allow whatever essence of goodness there is within me to come forth and to inhabit the role of Sam because that is what he is: he's goodness, loyalty, decency. |
| Sean A | Sam | To me, he personifies decency, simplicity, honesty and loyalty, the ultimate hobbit. Most of all, he has an undying friendship with Frodo that is so strong, he's willing to face the adventure of the unknown to help him. |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Sam | Well, you know the books are so amazing. They deal with the nature of fear, and the nature of greed, and people’s thirst for power for power’s sake. But Sam isn’t interested in any of that. When most people would give way to legitimate fear, insecurity, or terror, Sam doesn’t even know how to give way. He just knows how to be honest and loyal. And, when somebody embodies those qualities, and they happen to exist in a time of great peril, they shine and become a beacon of hope for other folks. |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Sam | The best way to understand Sam is to think of the most loyal, obedient puppy dog that you could ever have. But Sam also is a particular fellow. He likes things to be in order. He likes to have all of his pots and pans and sausages and food, and if things don't go his way, he gets frustrated, because he takes his job of providing for Mr. Frodo very seriously. He's a very earnest fellow. |
| Sean A | Sam and Frodo | Sam loves Frodo, and wants to protect Frodo. And Frodo is extremely protective of Sam. So what you have are these two people locked in this jouney together, even if it means right into Mordor, and into death. |
| Sean A | Sam and Frodo | They don't need to talk about what they are to each other, they just are. |
| Sean A USA Today, 12/14/02 |
Sidekick | I prefer attendant. Sidekicks are comic relief, but I didn't want Sam to be comic relief. I wanted him to have dignity, poise, a gravity. He represents trustworthiness, honor, faithfulness — these lofty human values. |
| Sean A | Tabloids | I've been written about in the tabloids, my mother and father have been written about in the tabloids and I was born in the tabloids. |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Tolkien | My whole experience of the trilogy was through the prism of preparing for the role of Sam. The first I ever heard of J.R.R. Tolkien, or of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was when my agent called to tell me there was a part in the new Peter Jackson film. She said, "It's The Lord of the Rings! You know - they're the sequels to The Hobbit!" Somewhere in the back of my consciousness, I knew the word Hobbit, but I couldn't tell you what a hobbit was. I could have guessed it was a short-ish Smurf or dwarf or something, but I didn't even know that for sure. But somehow I knew it was something I wanted to do. She said, "Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy for New Line." I heard, "Peter Jackson," "trilogy," and "New Line." I knew they were feature films and they were filming all three of them at once. I new it was going to be a huge, epic adventure. I just instantly got it. I didn't need to have it explained to me. There's a phrase, "There's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come," and that's how I felt. It was like someone turned on the light and I was already standing in the room. There are very few times in life when things are laid out for you like that. So I turned my car around and went to Barnes and Noble, and I said, "Do you guys know who J.R.R. Tolkien is?" And they were like, "Aisle Four." I went to Aisle Four and all of Aisle Four was J.R.R. Tolkien. So before even looking at the specific Tolkien titles, I looked around the rest of the bookstore - trying to figure out what else I didn't know about! Because clearly I was in the dark. I purchased a copy of the trilogy illustrated by Alan Lee, powered through 175 pages of The Fellowship of the Ring and hired a dialect coach to prepare for my audition. Honestly, I didn't enjoy it at first. I got how powerful a piece of literature it was, and I was impressed by the poetry, and I was trying to glean everything I could from the character, but it was almost like a biblical student would go to the Bible: this is the source material, so what do I need to figure it out? |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Tolkien | I didn't love it until I read The Hobbit. When I was
down in New Zealand, I was halfway through The Two Towers, and I wasn't
enjoying it. It was work going through it, and I didn't know why I didn't
embrace the world. So I bought The Hobbit - and I read it in four hours.
I just loved it. Then I started the trilogy over again. I started with The
Fellowship and it was a lot easier. The Hobbit was the gateway to the experience
for me. I think you need to understand Bilbo's story. The world of the Shire
is laid out with such elegance and simplicity that you're drawn right into
it. Now, of course, I am very grateful to Professor Tolkien, and to the millions of people around the world who've been absorbed in his life's project - because basically it helped me orient a couple years of my life. |
| Sean A USA Today, 12/14/02 |
Tolkien | I never heard of the trilogy before. As soon as my agent told me it was going forward, I read it and hired a dialect coach and prepared an audition. It was an awakening for me. |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Weight | I gained twenty pounds for the part of Sam. It was between me, who had just run the L.A. Marathon at a trim 160 pounds, and a heavy set actor in England whom they also liked for the part. So I convinced them I was capable of transforming into a bigger version of the myself. I committed to it and I did it. But I must say that the hardest part of being involved with the trilogy was putting that weight on, and living with this extra blubber for a year and a half. I became this big, bulky, stocky, heavyset guy, and it was hard. It was hard on my back, my knees, and my heart, I'm sure. I got back to about 168 by the time we went to Cannes, and then I've crept back up to 180. It's a hard thing on the human body to vacillate with weight. It's really unhealthy. I'm trying now to design a lifestyle that will have me at a good weight that I can sustain over the long haul. But I became Sam! |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Weight | It wasn't even an intellectual thing. It was like it was destined to happened, and I was destined to do it. It wasn't that I wanted to do it - it was that I had to do it. Of course I was going to do whatever I had to do to get that part, because there are very few times when there's a perfect marriage of an actor and a part. |
| Sean A Official Fanclub Magazine, 2001 |
Weight | I just didn't watch what I ate. I ate anything and everything
that I wanted. I did a lot of weight-lifting right away, and didn't run
a lot. But I stopped weight-lifting, because once you have the prosthetic
feet and ears on , you don’t want to move around too much, because
your sweat can loosen the glue, and the feet can come off. So I had 15-hour
days of sitting still and eating. All the actors took up surfing, and I was just hopeless. I loved trying, but I was like this big seal trying to stand on top of a toothpick. There are some shots in the movies where I just look at myself and go, "Wow, that's me?" |
| Sean A USA Today, 12/14/02 |
Weight | There was a lot of eating involved. Breads, pastas, meats and sweets, and nothing is off-limits. Peter (Jackson, the director) was going to hire a heavy-set actor in England or me if I said I would do what I was going to do. When I hit 192 pounds, I stopped counting. I'm 172 now and running on the treadmill. |
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